Of the 24 states in the U.S. having deregulated markets for energy, 14 are fully deregulated in both electricity and gas with liberty to purchase from the best-price bidder while continuing to get electricity delivered using the distribution lines of the local utility. Between October and November 2013 Frost & Sullivan conducted a customer survey of 250 commercial & industrial medium and large companies to determine customer perception and purchase criteria for electricity and energy service management.Evaluating 6 of the 14 fully deregulated states, mainly, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Connecticut found respondents of manufacturing, data centers, hospitals, small franchisees, and edu

Of the 24 states in the U.S. having deregulated markets for energy, 14 are fully deregulated in both electricity and gas with liberty to purchase from the best-price bidder while continuing to get electricity delivered using the distribution lines of the local utility. Between October and November 2013 Frost & Sullivan conducted a customer survey of 250 commercial & industrial medium and large companies to determine customer perception and purchase criteria for electricity and energy service management.Evaluating 6 of the 14 fully deregulated states, mainly, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Connecticut found respondents of manufacturing, data centers, hospitals, small franchisees, and education end user profiles spelling out customer requirements to suppliers of choice in a market dictated by low customer loyalty, high price competition, and low market entry barriers. While these conditions were revealing of fractioned market, it demonstrates why price cuts cannot be the only method for customer retention and loyalty in the C&I market for electricity, and that customer apathy on the subject of electricity might just be explained by their ignorance of the difference between a Distribution Utility and a Competitive Retailer when choosing a supplier and not by generalising it a phenomenon observable in different ways throughout the market. Read Less